Thursday, June 4, 2009

What is Justice?

Food for thought:

Yesterday a friend of mine was giving me a lift home on his moto. As we were driving we witnessed what appeared to be a moto theft. The woman yelled "thief" in Khmer and immediately everyone around was after the guy (some of them probably saw him do it too.) They caught the bike and then the men grabbed the guy and pushed him off the bike and started throwing punches at him. The cop stood by and watched until the guy received a good beating. Then the cop removed the culprit from the scene.

This is the way it works in Cambodia. I would hate to be someone wrongfully accused of a crime. It's like being guilty before proven Innocent and your fate is left to the people around at the time of the crime and the crowd that joins afterwards. It kind of parallels the stonings in Acts where Stephen was stoned and Peter, not to mention Jesus' death.

After witnessing the scene (because my friend stopped his moto to watch the whole thing) it made me really start to think about justice and what it is all about and should be all about. The way things are done here in regards to justice may not seem right at times but I can't really say they are wrong either. Its just different. It's just something to think about.

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